Formulating intentions that lead to happiness

 

I recently read part of this book and I highly recommend it .  I especially like the subtitle :  My Yoga of Self Acceptance.  That is really what Yoga is all about isn't it ?   not how far or deep you can go into a pose.  

As a student of Buddhism I like to share  snippets of articles that I read  in books and  magazines like the quote that follows from tricycle: 

We spread thoughts of goodwill for all the world, that we don’t wish anyone any harm. We wish that all beings could find happiness. So why are we sitting here with our eyes closed? (in meditation).  Why aren’t we going out there, making people happy?

Because happiness is something that has to come from within. It’s based on being skillful in the way you act, which includes not only your physical actions, but also your speech and the actions of your mind—and in particular, the act of intention. This is because it’s through our intentions that we shape the world we experience, along with the amount of pleasure or pain we take out of that experience. To formulate intentions that really do lead to happiness is a skill. And because it’s a skill, nobody else can master the skill for you; you can’t master the skill for anyone else. You can give other people advice, you can show them to some extent how to do things, but for them to find happiness requires that they take the issue of happiness